1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for sterilizing and disinfecting skin or apparatuses easily, quickly, safely, consistently, and efficiently by using ozone.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many types of chemicals have been conventionally used for sterilization and disinfection, and nowadays many types of chemicals are used practically. However, none of these currently used germicides and disinfectants can be definitely effective on all bacteria and viruses. In addition, different concentrations and exposure times specific to each chemical are required to exhibit the sterilization effect. Therefore, in case of an emergency, it is difficult to have enough time for complete sterilization and disinfection. Some chemicals involve safety problems such as skin allergy or corrosion of apparatus, and some chemicals involve problems of leaving residues and requiring post-treatment steps. As described herein above, all commercially available disinfectants are disadvantageous specifically individually in consistency, quick remedy, and safety, so improved disinfectants are required.
Ozone has been known as a substance having a strong sterilizing effect for many years. However, ozone is a vapor and inconvenient for handling, and in the event of inhalation of high concentration ozone, it exhibits strong toxicity depending on the condition. Therefore, the use of ozone has been suspended historically. For finger disinfection, which is essential for preventing in-hospital infection, ozone washing in which an ozone aqueous solution is used is convenient, but the solubility of ozone in water is low and the concentration of ozone is difficult to be controlled. Therefore, investigators have obtained different results when studying the relationship between ozone concentration in an aqueous solution and its sterilizing effect. For this reason, conditions for use of ozone washing have not been established, and manuals have not been issued. Increasing ozone concentration to intensify the sterilizing power permits an easy sterilization and disinfection. However, vapor ozone vaporizing from the solution increases, thereby causing a problem in safety. These reasons have delayed the practical use of ozone for sterilization and disinfection.
Nevertheless, ozone is very effective for sterilizing and disinfecting a wide variety of bacteria, and ozone is remarkably superior to other germicides and disinfectants in its strong sterilizing and disinfecting power due to its active oxidation action. Accordingly, such sterilizing and disinfecting power of ozone is very advantageous. The vapor phase feature favors ozone to be used for vapor phase sterilization and disinfection of the inside of a room and apparatuses, and the reduced residual property and easy post-treatment steps provide safety advantages.
Therefore, it is would be an important improvement in the prevention of in-hospital infection and public health if the strong sterilizing and disinfecting effect of an ozone aqueous solution and ozone gas could be used safely and consistently.
The present invention is intended to solve the above mentioned problems, by providing a method of safe and consistent sterilization and disinfection by calculating the amount of ozone required for the sterilization, thereby contributing to the prevention of in-hospital infection and improvement of public health.